Best and Worst of 2024

While I've written this before, I dislike best and worst posts that come out in November or early December. What happens if you see something great in late December? Does it qualify for the next year or is it just forgotten? Now that 2024 is complete, here's my annual best and worst list. Please note that the items in this post represent what I watched or saw in 2024 even if they came out before this year. For example, The Sound of Music was released about 60 years ago, but I saw it for the first time over the summer as part of a live outdoor screening/sing-a-long (which was a lot of fun). 

Best TV Show: A Man on the Inside and Primo

There's two things in common with these shows: They are comedies with a lot of heart, and Michael Schur is a producer on both. Primo, which aired on Freevee in 2023, featured a teenage boy in San Antonio raised by his single mom and five uncles. While it's a coming of age story about the teenager, the dynamics between the five uncles (as well as with their sister and nephew) made the show. I'm writing this in past tense since it's unfortunate and disappointing that the show was cancelled after one season. Still, I highly encourage you to check it out.

A Man on the Inside follows Ted Danson, a widower hired to live in a retirement community by a private detective to try to solve a case of a stolen necklace. This one seemed to hit close to home between older residents and Mary Elizabeth Ellis (maybe best known as The Waitress on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and her husband raising three boys. Any scene with the three kids seemed to mirror many parts of my life. While there are certainly funny moments, I think the show is much more of a drama than a comedy.

Right before I published this post, I changed my mind. My favorite TV show that I watched in 2024 was Only Murders In The Building. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are fantastic. The show has so many good lines and scenes and amazing guest stars. The "minor" characters are all awesome too. The only negative is that I haven't watched the last two episodes of season four since my free Hulu subscription ended. I need to see how the last season ended!

Worst TV Show: Yellowstone

I watched the first three seasons last year, so this only represents season 4 and season 5, and really it's just the last 6 episodes which aired in November and December 2024. The show returned after a nearly 2-year break by killing off a major character but not having that character appear on screen thanks to a contract dispute. Even though there wasn't much time to wrap things up, there was still time to show Yellowstone's creator and writer Taylor Sheridan play poker several times and have Rip tell a story about meeting Sheridan's character at a bar fight. Oh, and there's always time for 2-3 minute clips of horses stopping quickly in the dirt for the 713th time. I really hope that there's not a 6th season though I would watch a spin-off featuring Mo and Teeter.

Other TV shows I watched in 2024:

Night Court

The Bear (season 2)

Archer (final episode)

Not Dead Yet

Abbott Elementary

Quantum Leap

Atlanta

Shogun

Modern Family (I had the last few seasons from several years ago saved on my DVR)

Welcome to Wrexham (latest season)

The Big Door Prize

The Amazing Race

Fargo (season 5) 

High Potential

The Other Two (season 3)

Girls5eva

Succession (last half of last season)

Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North

Hacks (season 3)

Beast Games

Best Song: APT by Rose and Bruno Mars

While I wrote about my favorite songs of 2024 a few weeks ago, APT by Rose (from the South Korean group BlackPink) and Bruno Mars is my favorite. It's pure pop and really, really catchy. To me, the bridge makes the song. 

Don't you want me like I want you, baby

Don't you need me like I need you now

Sleep tomorrow but tonight go crazy

All you gotta do is just meet me at the

So good. Plus, if you want to be silly, you can replace the chorus with a-pa-chocolate chip. It works. (Credit to The Moose for this change.)

Worst Song: Lonely Road by MGK and Jelly Roll

Look, if you're going to use the tune from John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads, just do a cover. 

Lonely road, take me home

To the place that we went wrong

Where'd you go now?

It's been a ghost town

And I'm still here all alone.

No. No. No. No. No. Now, if you insert West Virginia after where'd you go now, that might redeem the song a little. That might be funny.

Best Movie: The Holdovers

I'll admit that this was the toughest pick for me. Oppenheimer and Barbie both deserved all the acclaim they received. Poor Things and Emelia Perez are both very weird (especially Poor Things), but I appreciate that the films went for a big swing. They are both so much different than anything I've seen. With all of that, The Holdovers is a safe pick. Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa are all excellent. A feel good story and ending too.

Worst Movie: Maestro

I give credit to Bradley Cooper for acting and directing this movie about Leonard Bernstein. I just found that I didn't really care about Bernstein's personal life. 

Other Movies I Watched in 2024 not mentioned above:

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version)

Dumb Money

Mississippi Burning

Lincoln

Ex Machina

A Star Is Born

The Sound of Music
Everything Everywhere All at Once

Top Gun: Maverick

Knives Out: Glass Onion

If

Wicked (part 1)

Best Book: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong runs a tea shop with barely any customers and finds a dead body in her shop one morning. From there, she decides to solve the case. It's a really fun read. 

Other Books I Read in 2024:

Rickey by Howard Bryant

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

60 Songs That Explain The 90s by Rob Harvilla

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto 

People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn (only a few chapters in)

Best Pittsburgh Sports Moment:

The real answer should be anything related to Paul Skenes, but this picture (as shown below) after Pitt's men's basketball team defeated Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in January is still awesome. Pitt really should have made the tournament, but a few pre-conference losses sealed their fate. 

Worst Pittsburgh Sports Moment:

Everything else! The Penguins didn't make the playoffs. The Steelers lost in the first round of the playoffs in snowy Buffalo and seem headed to that again next week. The Pirates are the Pirates, Pitt's football team lost 6 straight, and Pitt's women's volleyball team had an incredible year but lost in the final four. Duquesne's men's basketball team winning an NCAA tournament game was fun though.  

Best Sports Moment I Saw Live: Maryland Women's Basketball

Yes, this is definitely recent bias, but the pass starting around the 3:40 mark of this video was awesome.

Most Meaningful Blog Posts:

The high and low of 2024 came just a few weeks apart. The Moose celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in early April, and then, my mom passed away at the end of the month. I'm grateful that she was able to watch the ceremony online and congratulate him on an amazing job. 

Worst Blog Post: A Hawk Tua Post

This was a dumb idea about hawks that lived on my street and the Miami Dolphins quarterback.

Best Concert: Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

I saw these concerts about a week apart, and that's quite the twin bill. What I appreciate about both is that they have deep catalogs and play such a wide variety of their songs. I was awestruck by the Bruce concert, and as I was leaving Nats Park, I started going through his hits that they didn't play. I wasn't upset. Bruce and company could play a 7-hour concert and still not play everything!

Random Ramblings

* The Moose just started his second semester of 7th grade and is taking Family & Consumer Science. Part of this class is a cooking unit, and after watching the first two seasons of The Bear, I fully expect him to swear a lot and start yelling "Yes Chef" at all times. 

* I started wearing contact lenses in 9th grade and while I don't wear them everyday like I used to in my teens and 20s, I still wear them more than my glasses. That ended recently. I started getting headaches if I wore them too long, so I haven't worn my contacts since January 1st. That needs to change. 

* While The Moose doesn't do this, there is a high percentage of middle schoolers (both boys and girls) that wear pajama pants to school. I don't get it.

* We won at trivia a few weeks ago, and one of the prizes was the socks pictured below. Most of my socks are black or brown or your standard Nike or Adidas socks. I want to become a fun sock guy. These socks will start it all!

* When I look at myself in the mirror, I see only brown hair. I mean, I'm mostly bald at this point, but the hair that I have is brown. However, at a recent haircut, there seemed to be a lot of gray on the cape.I think (or at least hope) that all the gray is from my sideburns.

* I didn't shave for several days, and I only shaved my neck so I didn't look like former quarterback Kyle Orton. When I picked up Pedro Tulo and Luigi, the after-school teacher complimented me on my beard. While I already shaved and aren't planning on growing a beard soon, it's nice to know I can grow a good-looking beard almost instantly.

* Over the last few months, I've binge-watched Yellowstone. While I'm almost done with season 4 and overall enjoyed the show, I'm getting a little tired of the messaging that cities, government, environmentalism, and in some cases education (for Jamie but not Beth) are bad and just living as a cowboy and vigilante justice solves everything.

* The other show I'm watching is Only Murders In The Building. I'm in the middle of season two and love it. So much fun!

* Finally, Pedro Tulo and Luigi wanted to watch the NFL Pro Bowl on Sunday, so I watched it with them. Anyone complaining about the amount of airtime Taylor Swift gets during Kansas City football games must also be going crazy about how much Peyton and Eli Manning appeared on the ESPN telecast. Yes, they were the coaches in the game, but ESPN showed one or both of them after EVERY SINGLE PLAY and sometimes even during the play on a split-screen. When they weren't on the screen, ESPN showed Ray Lewis instead. Would have been nice to spend more time with current players.

What's Going On

Once again, I'm stealing Heidi's idea for a "Housekeeping" post to share what's going on in my life.

* Both The Moose and Pedro Tulo are playing basketball this winter. This is the first time Pedro Tulo (4th grade) has played organized basketball, and this is definitely a learning experience for him. I'm hoping that he becomes a defensive stopper this season since it's still difficult for him to shoot. The baskets are really high for a little guy. Meanwhile, this is the third season for The Moose (7th grade), and he has the same coach along with a few teammates from last season. The Moose seems to be all about taking outside shots. He doesn't seem eager to battle with the "trees" down low.

* Hanukkah starts at sundown on Thursday. As usual, I'm trying to promote the pickles at Hanukkah tradition which started in 1998. (Here's the full story about how the tradition started.) While I'm excited to host a pickle taste test at my synagogue as part of our Hanukkah party (per the picture below, the pickles have been purchased!), the main way I'm attempting to promote the pickle tradition this year is commenting on and liking somewhat random Hanukkah posts on Instagram and Facebook with the pickle accounts. Not sure of the effectiveness of this plan. By the way, please follow the Hanukkah Pickles account on Instagram and the Pickles at Chanukah account on Facebook.

* With the temperatures regularly in the 40s, we’re now in dry-hand season. My hands look forward to March and April.

* I’m very late to this, but I started watching Yellowstone. This show proves that I could never work on a ranch. Or get involved in Montana politics. What’s interesting is that I’m watching most episodes on CBS, and thanks to a Thanksgiving marathon, I recorded many episodes from the Paramount network, a station I didn’t know I had. It’s quite jarring watching a show without swear words transition to one with swear words. I think you’re used to one or the other and not characters “changing” their language part way through a show.

* I took Luigi to a birthday party of one of his first grade classmates a few weeks ago. Nothing makes my introverted side come out more than a trampoline park where I don’t know any of the parents and don’t even know which parents are part of my group since there are several parties going on at once.

* My recent dentist appointment was a success. The receptionist at my dentist’s office noted that I’ve been a patient for 20 years now. This is now one of my longest relationships!

NHL Outdoor Game Ideas

The NHL played two outdoor games over the weekend at Lake Tahoe. While the league has held outdoor games in stadiums for over a decade now, these games were unique in that there were essentially no fans. The league put a hockey rink right next to Lake Tahoe with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. It was absolutely beautiful. I mean, sure the Saturday game ended up being delayed after the first period due to the sun melting the ice, but I think the NHL should consider playing games in unique locations in the future, even without fans.

Here are some ideas the NHL should consider. 

+ Since I'm from Pittsburgh, Point State Park was the first place I thought of when I came up with the idea for this post. Every television broadcast from Pittsburgh always shows the confluence where the Allegheny River and Monongahela meet to form  the Ohio River. Now you can have a game right there!

+ Central Park in New York City. I asked my friend and hockey road trip partner Christian his thoughts on this question, and he suggested other places in New York, which sound even cooler. "The rink could go in Battery Park which is all the way downtown. View of the WTC as well as the Statue of Liberty. 

Oh, and on that note. Do the game on Governors Island. There’s a massive field in the middle. Would have a great view of the Verrazano bridge, the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan. And best, it’s on an island. The NHL could easily control the people who are on the island. In fact, I bet a lot of cities have islands that have great views. That could be kind of epic."

+ My first thought of having a game in the Bay Area was on the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure, that would seriously mess up traffic for days, but think of the views! However, after Christian's island idea, the clear answer is Alcatraz. (This video is not suitable for work, but go to 2:07 of the video to avoid the R-rated language and get to the money line.)

+ Play the game on an actual lake. Since Lake Tahoe isn't frozen, pick one that actually is for a January or February game. Lake Placid.* Lake Michigan. Lake Erie. Great Bear Lake. Any of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Just find one that works.

+ Convert a Maid of the Mist boat at Niagara Falls into a hockey rink. Amazing views plus you get the bonus of seeing a game played on a moving surface (the boat will be on the water, not docked!) and you get the mist from the falls creating poor visibility for the goalies.

+ The National Mall in Washington. I see two options here. One is building a rink between the Washington Monument and the United States Capitol, and the other is on the reflecting pool itself. For the second option, immediately after the national anthem, have Robin Wright come on the ice and yell Forrest.

+ The Grand Canyon. There must be a valley with enough space to put a rink. 

+ Under The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. 

+ Outside the CN Tower in Toronto or the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago.

+ Long Pond in Windsor, Nova Scotia. If this is the first place hockey was played, play an NHL game here!

+ Next to the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. And by next to, I mean play the game on Mount Lee for the first ever game played at a significant angle!

+ Yellowstone National Park. Build the rink with the Old Faithful geyser in the middle. Who wouldn't want to see Tom Wilson get shot up into the air in the second period?

I could probably keep going, but if you have other suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.

* Although this post is about outdoor games, why hasn't the NHL had an indoor game in Lake Placid? There is no place more famous for hockey in the United States than Lake Placid.